Misonou no momoki no ume no chiru hana shi ame ni tobiagari yuki to furikemu

御園生の百木の梅の散る花し
天に飛び上がり雪と降りけむ

Roma-ji: Misonou no momoki no ume no chiru hana shi ame ni tobiagari yuki to furikemu
English Translation: From the royal garden,
from its hundred plum trees,
the falling blossoms
must have soared up to heaven
and come down again as snow
Meaning: The petals scattering from the hundred plum trees of that noble garden must have flown up to the heavens and fallen again as snow.
Commentary: Book Seventeen 3906

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Six new poems in belated response to the plum-blossom poems of the Dazaifu days"
The petals of the many plum trees in the garden must have soared into the sky and fallen as snow—a poem imagining the scene of the plum banquet. This is one of six poems that Ōtomo no Fumimochi composed on the ninth day of the twelfth month of 740, written in response to the thirty-two poems of the plum-blossom banquet held at Tabito's residence in Dazaifu in the first month of 730 (Book Five, 815 to 846). Ten years had passed, and his father Tabito, host of that banquet, was already dead; a longing for the banquet of old runs beneath the series. Closing the six, it takes up the host Tabito's poem likening falling plum blossoms to snow and pictures the scene afresh.
The poet, Ōtomo no Fumimochi, was a son of Ōtomo no Tabito and the younger brother of Yakamochi. He died young in 746.
The left note reads, "The above were composed by Ōtomo no Sukune Fumimochi on the ninth day of the twelfth month of the twelfth year."

First line, "misonou no": mi is honorific and sonou means a garden—Tabito's plum garden.
Second line, "momoki no ume no": momoki means "a hundred trees," the plum blossoms filling the garden.
Third line, "chiru hana shi": shi is emphatic, stressing the subject, "the falling blossoms."
Fourth line, "ame ni tobiagari": the petals whirling up into the sky; the line is hypermetric (eight morae).
Fifth line, "yuki to furikemu": kemu expresses conjecture about the past, "they must have fallen as snow." It draws on Tabito's banquet poem in Book Five, 822, "In my garden plum blossoms fall—can it be snow streaming down from the heavens?", inheriting its likening of petals to snow. Answering "mifuyu tsugi" in 3901 at the start, it closes the six with an image of winter snow.
Author: Ōtomo no Fumimochi
Source: Manyoshu
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